Donato's Ristorante — Restaurant in Davie

I am adding a star to my review because the last few times we went they were much better about the bread and garlic. The rolls were fresh. And everything was very good.

They can be excellent. The problem is that they are NOT consistent. And they seem to have some aversion to giving you extra garlic. No matter how many times you ask for it. Even when you assure them that you are happy to pay for it they still forget it more often then not. And we have been treated like we were requesting diamonds rather than extra garlic for the rolls. It is very frustrating. Come one it's Italian and we are garlic lovers.

The past 2 times I've had problems with the bread. I order a meatball sub with bread on the side because even though i LOVE bread I only eat a little of it. Trying to watch my carbs but i still like a bit of bread with meatballs.

The last time the bread wasn't cut nor toasted as it usually is. It was also not fresh! Not hard type of stale- but just not fresh tasting or feeling.

This time I decided to ask if I could have garlic rolls instead because I generally love them and I didn't want to worry about giving bread instructions. EXTRA GARLIC. I repeated several times. Adding that it would be my last time getting them for awhile because I am headed to Texas.

I got home to discover that the rolls had almost no garlic and they were very old tasting. Maybe there was garlic powder on them rather than fresh garlic, because it tasted like that to spite not seeing much evidence of any. And it left my hands smelling lie dried garlic. Like store bought rolls that sat for 3 or 4 days in your pantry. Or sat on a counter awhile. Dense and cold. I had to look really closely to even find any garlic.

The meatballs were great and they had the extra sauce I ordered..But no one wants dry bread.

And their rolls have seemed Premade rather than freshly cooked for awhile now.

Hopefully by my next visit they will be back on track and I can update this with a...

I have been coming to this restaurant since it was Antonio's Pizzeria. Then it was bought out by Donato several years ago. The first couple years, the quality of the food remained just a delicious as when it was Antonio's. The last couple years, I have noticed a downward slope in quality and an upward slope of price. I actually had an employee (who will remain anonymous for protection purposes) that told me Donato was starting to use cheaper ingredients. It makes sense since the food was becoming unbearable to eat. And they charged me a to-go cup fee after taking a soda from dinning-in. How cheap can this guy get? $2.90 for a to-go cup for my soda?! That was the last straw to break the camels back. I starting going back to the original Antonio's in Shenandoah Square. The food was amazing. I decided to never again be a patron of Donato's Ristorante. Yesterday (05JUL2015), I went to Donato's to buy a pizza after a very long day of fishing because it is close to my house and I didn't feel like driving to Antonio's. The pizza was almost un-edible. I ordered a medium pepperoni pizza. The crust was very chewy like rubber. There was very little pepperoni and it was not placed on the pie with any accuracy. Clumps of pepperoni here, a piece of it there. One slice only had one piece of pepperoni on it. The sauce was bland and had very large pieces of something leafy in it. The cheese was an obviously cheap product because there was so much grease it leaked out of the box and onto my car seat. Good mozzarella doesn't do that. And the cheese melted over the side if the crust into the box. After this last experience, tired or not, I WILL NEVER EAT THERE AGAIN. I'd rather buy Publix...

I've been coming to this place since I was a kid back when it was called Antonio's. I'm in my 30s now and have since moved to Weston, but have visited from time to time. Today is our last time going and I would discourage anyone reading this from going too. Regarding our service, the waitress was nice, but clearly not cut out for this line of work. After having taken our order, she returned ten minutes later to ask who had ordered soups and salads. My wife had ordered calamari marinara, but received fried calamari. When we brought this to their attention, the waitress said she thought my wife ordered the appetizer. This made no sense in light of the fact that my wife had already been given the salad that came with the calamari marinara. Obviously, soups and salads don't accompany appetizers. Despite this, my wife kept the food, but barely touched it, given that it was very overcooked. This brings me to the food. They brought out a small bowl of side spaghetti for her with sauce that by all accounts came right out of a can. The food in general felt like it was either frozen or out of a can. We obviously don't know if it is or not, but that's what the quality of the food is like. I really liked this place, and am absolutely bummed by our experience today. We decided it will be our last. I hate saying that because I'm a small business owner myself, but reviews like this are necessary for improvement. It keeps them accountable. After reading some of the other reviews over the last few years, it's unfortunate to see that not much has changed. Don't waste...